Simon Dumont: ‘Tough to Balance Everything’

At 25 years old, Simon Dumont has been on top of the professional field for the better half of a decade. As one of the faces of the newly-created U.S. Freeskiing halfpipe team, Dumont will soon be representing not only his sponsors but the US of A. And Dumont doesn’t appear to be slowing down. With a custom-tailored “Cubed Pipe” at his disposal last winter and a segment in Poor Boyz Productions’ upcoming film, The Grand Bizarre (film trailer above), Dumont remains a force to be reckoned with.

POWDER.COM: How much time did you spend filming with Poor Boyz this year?

SIMON DUMONT: This year was a little bit different than most years, because of all the contests. I was at Keystone for one day, and then I did the cubed shoot. I didn’t shoot as much as I usually do.

Was the Keystone shoot park or pipe based? We shredded some park jumps, some rails, and some other stuff. I think it was a weeklong shoot, but I had just come back from a contest. I got one day in.

With the creation of the U.S. Freeskiing halfpipe team, will your time from now on be dedicated to competing and training for the Olympics? Well, no. There is still quite some time before the actual Olympics. Next year, I plan on really putting out a good segment. I want to focus on the slopestyle side of this a little bit more, just because once we do get closer to the Olympics, I’m going to be focusing on competing. Next year should be a good filming year for me.

Why weren’t you able to film more this season? I had a lot, a lot of contests. It is tough to balance everything, you know? I did some slopestyle events in addition to the halfpipe events and tried to shoot on top of that. Plus, I ended up doing this Cubed Pipe shoot. It is really something phenomenal. It will probably just be thrown into the movie. My banger part should be the Cubed Pipe shots.

Where you approached by Red Bull to do the Cubed Pipe or was it your idea? It’s something I’ve had in my head for about six years now. Logistically, you need an above ground pipe that’s not dug in, a lot of snow, and the ability to cut it. Finally, Red Bull, Tahoe, and Snowpark Technologies came together, and we got it going.

Is it tough for you to get hyped up when you are out there by yourself, without anyone else to push you? I like having a small crew. I like to be skiing with one or two guys. Tom Wallisch is always fun to ski with, just because he is always so hungry and looking at things creatively. I really liked skiing with Dave Crichton back in the day. It is not the most fun to ski by yourself. But with the cubed shoot, that was the only way to do it. It was designed specifically for me. No one else could physically ski it because it was designed for me and the way I ski. It actually kind of bummed me out. I didn’t have anybody to feed off of; but you got to do things like that some times.

Was intimidating the first couple runs through? Yeah, I was worried about coming up short, and I didn’t want to end up going long. The first day I didn’t even make it past the third hit. It ended up being way more difficult than I thought it would be. There was no warm-up involved. Each gap was at least 25 feet, so I had to go pretty big my first runs through.

You mentioned Dave Crichton. Was his ally-oop flat five over the channel gap at Copper Mt. (Level 1 Productions/Forward) a source of inspiration for this whole thing? I didn’t think it had anything to do with those channel gaps. I think a lot of people have done channels before. I always just had an idea of what it would look like to have that other hit cut out; not just that gap you are jumping over in a channel. I guess we just wanted to show how useless half the pipe is. It is kind of crazy that we don’t even ski on it. I don’t know. I mean maybe Dave and those guys are the part of the inspiration, but the idea just kind of brewed up within me. I just wanted to do something a little different.

Will you be involved in the editing process of your segment with PBP? Yeah, actually. I am going to head to the Poor Boyz Office to make sure they use the right shots from the Cubed Pipe. I also have a couple jump shots from Keystone that I am pretty excited about. I want to put those in there. I’m just going to head in there, and get my voice heard, and ensure they use the right shots. We work together, and get to a level where we are both excited about the segment.

What role did Red Bull Media House play in the Cubed Pipe project and your Poor Boyz segment? Red Bull Media House is involved because of the Bobby Brown shoot where he did his triple, and my cubed shoot. It was all Red Bull. They used different cameras, and helis… Redbull just funded a lot of the project. It wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Poorboyz sort of had the men on the ground. It ended up being a joint effort; but without Red Bull’s funding, it wouldn’t have happened.